It's Got To Be Flat

I have a severe case of I-wanta-itis, as in I want a flat fender and it's become a sort of disease.
I'm specifically talking about Willys flat fenders - you know - the original jeep, the one that won the war. I love A1's, CJ-5's, CJ-6's, FSJ's and Willys Wagons too, but that's another story or three.

So for me, flat is where its at. But I'm 6' and my 13 year old daughter's legs are about 5 feet long, and she doesn't fit comfortably as it is in our FJ40, so an 80" wheelbase just isn't going to hack it. Speaking of hacking it, since I'm not a purist by any standard I don't have a problem cutting up a flatty to fill my wants and needs.

So let's get started.

First of all, I am especially fond of the MB grille. You know, the one with the inset headlamps and 9 slats instead of the modern day 7. It was good enough for Patton and it's good enough for me. Since I recently discovered that the grille can be used on every flatty except the CJ-3B, my chances of finding a halfway decent tub has increased by leaps and bounds. I say "halfway decent tub", because even though a stretch is in the plans, unlike Granny Troy, I won't be making any attempts to align body panels, remove beauty marks, or surface rust. In fact I'm quite certain that God intended rust to be a color all along, and you'll never talk me out of it.

As I said before, I need more wheelbase, and just so happens that my dream rig (or most of my dream rig) already exists, so I have some dimensions already at my disposal. Yep, Craig Donaldson of the Victor Valley 4Wheelers has owned a stretched Willys for quite some time now, and every time I've seen it it's made me drool. It was for sale a few years ago and I still can't believe to this day that I didn't buy it.

Craig's "Mojave Limo" measures out something like this:
Wheelbase 104" using a CJ-6 frame
Tub stretch 24" but retains the original (beautiful) door openings

I'd use an aftermarket CJ-6 boxed frame set up for Wrangler length springs, or possibly offset pins and longer springs, but either way I'd ultimately like to use custom leaf packs and run them SOA. In complete rebellion to current trends I'd leave the shackles in the front because they work better and because I like them that way.

Axles are always a point of debate, but I like tires in the 36" diameter range, so I'd run Wagoneer Dana 44 axle housings with 4.88's, alloy axles, and beef up the spline count too. There is no locker other than Detroit (right?) so that's a no-brainer.

In the go department, I'd drop in a reliable as rain Chevy 350 with a Holley avenger carb and HEI ignition, and connect it to a tough as nails SM420. To juice up the beast I'd bolt in one of Premier's beefy alternators, and throw in a Power Welder too. Of course no rig worth it's muster hits the trails without an air source, so I'd convert the A/C pump to handle the chores. To split power to the pumpkins I'd run a beefed up Dana 300, or make a call to Advance Adapters for an Atlas 3.0 low transfer case.

A trip to the Four X Doctor for one of Mike Duncan's awesome cages (make mine family style) drop in some seats and this baby's about ready for prime time!

Well, that's my dream rig in a nutshell, so what's your's?

Drop me a line at Editor@C4x4.com

Captain Beadlock <><